India’s Spacetech Ecosystem Looks To Microgravity For Drug Discovery And Manufacturing

Nearly seven decades after NASA began studying how matter behaves beyond Earth, microgravity research is entering a new phase: from experimentation in space to manufacturing in space.

Microgravity offers conditions that are difficult, and sometimes impossible, to replicate on Earth. With gravity largely out of the equation, researchers can grow ultra-pure protein crystals that could aid drug discovery, explore new biological processes and develop advanced materials with properties that are difficult to achieve on the ground. What began largely as a scientific pursuit is now attracting pharmaceutical and biotech companies looking to turn these unique conditions into a commercial advantage.

The International Space Station (ISS) has become a major testbed for this research, hosting hundreds of experiments across biology, medicine, materials science and fluid physics. Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla was among the latest to participate in such research, conducting seven microgravity experiments during his 18-day mission aboard the ISS as part of Axiom Mission 4, with experiments supported by India’s space agency ISRO.

The opportunity is now pushing the space industry beyond its traditional focus on satellite connectivity, launch vehicles and aerospace defence. Companies are increasingly looking towards low Earth orbit (LEO) not just as a destination for research, but as a potential manufacturing environment for high-value products, particularly medicines and biological materials.

India’s spacetech ecosystem is beginning to explore this opportunity as well. Odisha-based startup Serendipity made headlines this month after flight-testing a prototype satellite designed to carry out critical steps in the pharmaceutical manufacturing process under microgravity conditions.

The development offers a glimpse into a potentially new frontier for India’s space industry — where the value of going moves beyond what can be observed or discovered there, but in what can ultimately be made there.

Space for Microgravity Experimentation

The near-weightless conditions created by microgravity offer an environment that is difficult to replicate on Earth. Microgravity reduces the effects of mechanisms such as convection, sedimentation, and buoyancy, allowing crystals to form with greater uniformity in size and structure, a property that can be important for pharmaceutical manufacturing. Space-based drug manufacturing has been explored for decades.

Serendipity began operations last year. For its latest demonstration, it used a high-altitude balloon at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research balloon facility in Hyderabad to test its satellite system, which also carried an autonomous pharmaceutical factory called ‘Alchemy’.

The satellite is designed to be deployed about 400-500 km from the Earth’s surface and remain in space for a few weeks or months. Its re-entry systems are designed to bring it back to Earth at specific sites, from where the molecules can be retrieved.

A few other spacetech companies are trying to tap this opportunity.

Andhra Pradesh-based startup AnduraX, founded in 2024 by Sree Supranayi and Nirvik Choudhury, is developing a reusable spaceplane that can remain in orbit for up to 90 days, support microgravity research and manufacturing, and return payloads to Earth with aircraft-like landings rather than capsule splashdowns.

The company is targeting global pharmaceutical firms exploring microgravity applications, particularly protein crystallisation for drug discovery. It is in discussions for pilot missions with potential companies.

Another startup, Akashalabdhi, is a Bengaluru-based aerospace engineering and manufacturing firm building inflatable modular space habitats.

“Our vision is to act as the infrastructure layer for the entire low-Earth-orbit economy, or the microgravity economy, as you can call it,” said founder Siddharth Jena.

Jena argues that microgravity expands the range of conditions under which manufacturers can manipulate materials, describing it as moving from roughly six degrees of freedom on Earth to as many as 12 in microgravity. This, he said, enables several critical manufacturing processes in space.

“In one of our launches, we are taking a company that is working on developing a cure for pancreatic cancer by manipulating the crystal structure,” he added.

Both startups are backed by Riceberg Ventures’ accelerator for spacetech firms, KickSky Space Labs.

“With strong talent, growing infrastructure, and a large pharmaceutical ecosystem, India has the potential to play a pivotal role in shaping the global microgravity economy,” said Ankit Anand, founding partner of Riceberg Ventures and cofounder of KickSky Space Labs.

The pharmaceuticals-in-microgravity market is estimated at around $768 Mn in 2024 and is expected to grow to $3 Bn by 2033, representing a 16.7% CAGR, while the broader in-space manufacturing market is forecast to grow from $1.5 Bn in 2026 to $3.5 Bn by 2030, Anand said. Drug crystallisation and protein-folding improvements are the strongest near-term pharma use cases, he added.

Other spacetech players developing reusable rocket structures also see microgravity as a major application area. Ethereal Exploration Guild (the Guild), which raised $20.5 Mn in a Series A funding round led by TDK Ventures in January, is building a reusable medium-lift rocket around a novel reusable upper stage.

“Any player who wants to do in-orbit manufacturing and microgravity experiments can utilise the upper stage of our rocket,” said cofounder Manu Nair.

The company is also working with pharmaceutical companies focused on in-space manufacturing.

The opportunity is also beginning to find support within India’s public-sector space ecosystem. India’s planned independent modular space station, Bharatiya Antariksh Station, to be built and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), will conduct multidisciplinary microgravity experiments spanning science, technology, medicine, agriculture and space manufacturing. 

The BAS-03 Science Research Module is dedicated to microgravity experiments in biotechnology, materials science and human physiology.

In January, ISRO issued an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) inviting proposals from the Indian research community to conceptualise, develop, and demonstrate scientifically meaningful microgravity experiments. 

Further, ExTeM (ExtraTerrestrial Manufacturing), a research group at IIT Madras, is working on microgravity to develop advanced manufacturing technologies for space exploration and Earth.

“We are in discussions with Indian startups who are planning to provide microgravity platform services, so that we can carry out our experiments,” said Prof. Sathyan Subbiah, coordinator of ExTeM at IIT Madras.

The broader Indian spacetech ecosystem is already gaining scale. Government data shows that the sector has attracted $8.4 Bn, with 399 startups now operating across launch vehicles, satellites, propulsion systems and space-grade electronics.

In 2019, the government opened the space sector to private participation with the establishment of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), which functions as a single-window interface between private industry and government agencies, including ISRO.

IN-SPACe also launched the Technology Adoption Fund, a ₹500 crore initiative designed to help transform early-stage technologies into commercially viable products. In June, the first cohort of three startups was selected for funding under this initiative.

Global Race Gets Hotter

The commercialisation of microgravity manufacturing is already underway globally, unlike Indian startups’ efforts that remain at the experimental or early commercial stage.

Merck, for example, has explored how growing protein crystals in space could help reformulate its blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda from an IV to an injectable form. As far back as 2017, the company sent the drug to the International Space Station to see if microgravity could produce smaller, more uniform crystals. Early results showed improved viscosity and injectability compared with Earth-grown crystals, potentially making cancer treatments more accessible.

Last year, space and defence technology company Redwire formed a dedicated subsidiary, SpaceMD, to commercialise pharmaceutical products developed in space. SpaceMD has already flown 54 PIL-BOX units, specialised and automated micro-laboratories for protein crystallisation in orbit, and has tested 37 drug compounds, according to a CNBC report.

Varda Space is an American space research company that manufactures pharmaceutical products and grows unique drug crystals in the microgravity of outer space before safely returning them to Earth using autonomous re-entry capsules.

In May, the company announced a collaboration with United Therapeutics to explore the use of microgravity to develop improved formulations of treatments for rare pulmonary disease.

Through the collaboration, the two companies will conduct pharmaceutical processing of small-molecule medicines for pulmonary disease aboard Varda’s orbital manufacturing and re-entry platform during multiple missions to low Earth orbit.

The UK Space Agency, meanwhile, has announced a coordinated package of measures expected to support the growth of in-orbit manufacturing. The measures will provide industry with greater regulatory clarity and a clearer pathway from research in orbit to patient access on Earth.

[Edited by Chetan Thathoo]

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